Marshall Steinbaum March 16, 2013

The Kedushah

Thank you for the opportunity to deliver this D’var T’fillah. As I’ve learned from my own work, the best way to learn something is to teach it, so I’m glad to have had the opportunity to research the Kedushah and discover something about its meaning, significance, and history.

The Kedushah or “Sanctification” is the third blessing of the Amidah, and it takes different forms for the Amidahs in different services. All are based on the same three biblical verses, which declare the holiness of God, the status of God with respect to His creation, and His location either throughout the world or as separate from it. The verses are:

“Kadosh kadosh kadosh adonai tseva’ot. Melo kol ha’aretz k’vodo.” Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole world is full of his glory.

“Baruch k’vod Adonai mi’m’komo.” Blessed is the glory of God... either “throughout the universe” or “from his place.”

“Yimloch Adonai l’olam. Elohaich t’zion l’dor va’dor. Halleluyah.” The Lord will reign over the world: your God, Zion, through all the generations. Halleluyah.

The first two of these are prophetic visions of angels glorifying God enthroned. The first is taken from Isaiah, who sees six Seraphim sing this, then purify his mouth with a hot coal and command him to go forth and prophesy the Babylonian Captivity. The second is from Ezekiel. An unnamed voice says this as the prophet is brought into the Lord’s presence and commanded to go and preach to the people, a task implied to be almost hopeless.

The third statement comes from Psalm 146, which also says “do not put your trust in princes, but in the Lord...” and proclaims the ultimate temporal power of the Lord.

The first and third of these verses make explicit that God is holy and rules over the whole world. Our Siddur translates “mi’m’komo” as “throughout the Universe” so it’s consistent with that theme, but more literal translations speak of God “in his place,” which is understood either as the world, that God’s place is in the world, or as separate from it. The theme that God rules over the world gave this prayer its association with martyrdom, since it asserts the ultimate temporal power of the Lord and thus speaks to those victimized by lesser temporal powers.

One interpretation of this entire prayer is that its three-part structure and the three “kadoshes” in the first verse relate to God as separate, prior, and superior to the physical and meta-physical world, referring to the scenes from Isaiah and Ezekiel in which men hear God’s praise and instructions through angels. The tradition of rising during the recitation of the three kadoshes evokes fluttering angels, as does keeping one’s legs and feet straight and together in imitation of the Bible’s description of angels’ having only one leg with no joints. The juxtaposition of these three main statements with interstitial text and music creates a polyphonic effect in the congregation similar to that evoked by the prophetic visions. Thus the congregation joins the angelic chorus in proclaiming God’s holiness and our origin in His creation. For that reason, the full Kedushah is only recited in a minyan, when it’s possible to create the choral effect.

The interstitial text varies between Shaharit and Musaf in the Shabbat morning service, as well as other times when the Kedushah is recited. The opening of the Shacharit and Musaf Kedushahs essentially state the purpose of the prayer: “Let us sanctify your name on earth as it is sanctified in the heavens” and “We shall declare your awesomeness and holiness.”

The Musaf Kedushah also contains a recitation of the Shema and “I am the Lord your God.” According to some sources, that is due to the prohibition on saying the Shema in Justinian’s code, though others attribute the ban to the earlier Sassanian regime. The Byzantine Christians considered the Shema to be heretical for denying the Trinity, but they approved the Kedushah because they thought its tripartite structure and the phrase “kadosh kadosh kadosh Adonai Tseva’ot” affirmed the triple nature of God, and the revisionist interpretation of Isaiah is as a prophet of the coming of Christ. Obviously Jews don’t give the phrase that interpretation, but they were happy to sneak the Shema into the Kedushah, apparently in the Musaf service because that was after the Byzantine police left the synagogue on Shabbat. Interestingly, this story is possibly itself anachronistic: it comes from a version of the Kedushah found in the Cairo Genizah, which welcomed the Rashidun conquest of Palestine in 636 since after that, saying the Shema in synagogue to affirm the oneness of God was given official sanction.

Thanks again for the opportunity to say a few words about the Kedushah. Shabbat shalom.